Real Deal

Terry Huff's Lost SoulHe's been a cop, an R&B sensation, an insurance salesman, and a homeless man. Today, the star of Special Delivery just wants to survive.

By Ted Scheinman •
June 25, 2010

Full Article

When D.C.’s R&B aristocracy gathered at the Birchmere for a reunion show on Mother’s Day of 2006, the Alexandria music hall, which often hosts nostalgia tours for white rock acts, looked like seniors’ night at the Apollo. William DeVaughn was resplendent in a classic white suit. The Jewels, the only all-female act ever recruited by James Brown for his touring revue, shimmered in sequins. Pookie Hudson chatted backstage in his signature derby. One of the original Unifics had flown in from California.

The marquee read “D.C. All-Stars,” and everyone who mattered was present. Except, that is, for Terry Huff.

“We called it the ‘D.C. All-Stars,’” recalls Captain Fly (né Robert V. Frye), the WPFW DJ who hosts the station’s Oldies House Party show. “And the one person that they were looking for that they could not get was Terry Huff. Man, they were all there: Pookie Hudson and the Spaniels, the Jewels, the Orioles, Skip Mahoney and the Casuals, William DeVaughn...Ernie Fields, the Winstons, you name it. And the one person that was needed for that to be complete—excepting the deceased artists—that person was Terry Huff.”

Captain Fly had worked on benefits with Huff before, most recently 2002’s School Tickets—a “soul opera” tribute to the Howard Theatre. For that show, Huff shared the stage with an assortment of old D.C. soul luminaries. Since then, according to Captain Fly, he’d gone to ground. “It was almost like going after Bin Laden,” he says. So the question bounced around: What happened to Terry Huff?

People have been asking variations on that since 1976, when Huff, a onetime Metropolitan Police Department officer, was lauded as R&B’s next big thing, the scion of a musical family whose voice was going to carry the emerging D.C. sound onto radios nationwide.

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That future, though, never came. Huff’s can’t-miss group split up before even finishing its record. And in the years since, Huff has floundered, living in many homes, none of them his own; managing a carryout; selling insurance; and fighting a losing battle to recoup his songwriting royalties. He’s been homeless. He’s been ill. Today, Huff is dispossessed, at odds with most of his surviving siblings, living at the Petworth home of a sister he hardly speaks to, and still convinced he’s going to get a record deal.

And he’s also dying—how fast, no one knows—of cancer.

Huff and a cat named Sam sit on his sister’s porch on the 4000 block of 4th Street NW. Huff still sports the curled mustache that, in more manicured form, graces the cover of his first and only LP. His cheeks, rounded with age, still dimple when he smiles. His speaking voice still carries a trace of the sweetness that briefly made him an icon. But at 62, he’s got vocal-cord polyps. He apologizes for the way he sounds. “I haven’t been talking much recently,” he says. “Let alone singing.”

I first met Huff when I lived around the corner. We got to talking about music; from time to time we’d also spend evenings playing guitar together. Now I’m pushing Huff to talk about the old days. The polyps aren’t the only thing that makes this tricky. Huff, it seems, has a revolutionary plan to end global poverty. And whenever my control over the conversation slackens, he gravitates back to the subject.

I coax him back to the topics in my notebook: His days as a plainclothes MPD officer, when he drove around in a VW bug busting bad guys. The distinction of having been, at 24, one of the MPD’s youngest detectives. And, more than anything, the music: the early years, before he became a cop, when Huff played with his brothers in an act called Andy and the Marglows. And the stretch of the 1970s after he left the force, a career that peaked with a 1976 LP called The Lonely One and credited to Terry Huff and Special Delivery.

The king of D.C.’s short-lived R&B golden era is also talking about the cancer that was diagnosed in his colon two months ago. “I came in there with pain—I’ve never had pain like that in my life,” Huff says. “I thought, ‘I’m dying.’ And it turns out that my bowels were blocked by a tumor….I have two lymph nodes out of 16 that were already affected, and my abdominal wall where it’s spreading—they can’t do a thing about it.” Huff’s third chemotherapy appointment was the day before. He won’t know for another four weeks whether the cancer has stalled.

But then there’s a pause, and Huff is right back to his plans for world enrichment. “Let me tell you something, my good brother,” he says. “I’m right now in the throes of launching—check this—a worldwide space-age income-creation service. It’s scientifically created so that people don’t have to work.”

He stops to look at Sam, who is sleeping. “I could make that cat wealthy,” Huff says.

The Huffs left North Carolina when Terry was a toddler. His father went first to New York, which he deemed unsuitable for raising kids, and then, in 1951, to Washington. The rest of the family followed—Terry, his mother, and his small army of siblings. The Huff children numbered 18 in total. Terry was the ninth child, three years younger than Andrew, who would be his main musical collaborator.

The family’s stay at 50th and C Streets SE ended when a fire burned them out. Several of the kids were put into a foster home. Terry wound up on a farm in Croom, Md. Eventually the Huff parents reunited the family in a home on the eastern edge of Capitol Hill, where they attracted the attention of a young man who’d just opened his first business.

The prime mover in Terry and Andrew’s impressionable years was John “Johnny Boy” Katsouros, a Greek-American from the island of Naxos. In 1945, Katsouros’ father was gunned down by the Nazis for breaking curfew. Once the postwar shipping routes opened up, Katsouros came to D.C., where his mother had been born. When he met the Huffs, he’d just left a job at Safeway to open the first Johnny Boy Carryout at 15th Street and Independence Avenue SE—right down the street from their new house.

Katsouros had fallen hard for the music he encountered in Washington. “In D.C., we ran across Smokey [Robinson] and the Miracles when I was a really little kid,” he says. “We saw Tina [Turner] when she was with Ike up at the old WUST studio off of Riggs Road. See, I was raised up around black people. And when I was looking to open my business, I was looking for a black neighborhood.”

That’s where he met the Huff boys. “So there I was, 22, 23 years old, and you got these young guys harmonizing on the corner, singing old Del Vikings, the Coasters, the Drifters, the Platters—I loved that music.”

“He heard us singing and he came out to the corner where we were at, and he just stood there and watched,” Huff says. “We were harmonizing on ‘I Know’ by the Spaniels. Incredible song. And he says, ‘We need to go to New York and see what we can do about getting you guys into recording records.’” Huff calls Katsouros the “most wonderful person ever in my life.”

Katsouros ingratiated himself with the family, even buying groceries for Huff’s mother. He outfitted Terry, Andy, and their neighborhood bandmates in bold green tuxes for the trip to Manhattan. “I did everything that the manager would do,” he says. “I bought them suits, and Terry—Terry practically lived with me for some time. He lived over top of the store….I more or less adopted him.”

If Terry was the favored child of the ensemble, Andrew was still the leader—three years older than Terry, with a wicked grin and an oversize stage presence. The boys began to gig around town. When Katsouros brought Terry backstage after an Inez and Charlie Foxx show at the Howard Theatre, the R&B duo were so impressed with the young man that they asked him to open for them in New Jersey.

“She only wanted Terry,” Katsouros says. “So Terry went. I took him up to New Jersey, bought him new suits, and when we got up there, the rest of the group didn’t take to Terry. They felt threatened by him. We did the one night and Inez asked us to leave, and that was heartbreaking ’cause we thought we really had a break.”

Katsouros ferried the boys to New York a dozen times in his white 1961 Cadillac Seville. His persistence finally paid off in a contract with Liberty Records, the same label that was pushing 45s by the doe-eyed likes of Bobby Vee. Terry was 16. Andy and the Marglows, as they styled themselves, recorded three songs at Liberty’s studios in New York: “Superman Lover,” “Symphony,” and—the one track that made it onto the pop charts—“Just One Look,” which they learned straight off the original Doris Troy demo.

The only problem, according to Katsouros, Terry Huff, and fellow Marglow Lamont Russell, was that a tin-eared producer tried to funk things up too much, insisting on a sped-up rendition. The record charted in Detroit in May 1963, beating Dion for “new release hit of the week.” But the success ended a week or so later, when Troy heard the tune, labeled it a misinterpretation, and cut her own version for Atlantic, which quickly rose to No. 10 on the U.S. singles charts.

“Liberty was a white label—they had all white performers, Gene Pitney and all that,” Katsouros says. “If we had a guy that was used to dealing with black groups and arranged it right, we would have been there. We had a contract to do three singles, six sides, and then Doris Troy came out with her version of it. She wiped us out and the label dropped us.”

It’s still a sore spot for Andrew Huff. “The companies we were on took everything that we made,” he says. “It’s disturbing. We were just young and stupid.”

A few months later, Terry and Andrew—as a duo—met with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff (no relation) in Philadelphia. The inventors of Philly soul had heard the recordings courtesy of Katsouros and been charmed by the brothers’ live performance. “Let’s do business,” they said. “Come back in the fall.”

But Terry and Andrew never saw Gamble and Huff again: Back in D.C., the brothers nearly came to blows at a rehearsal, ending their musical partnership. “Terry, as you might have heard, was difficult to work with,” Andrew says. “I guess we were rehearsing, and Terry’s the type of dude, he has no fun. So one guy was reading the newspaper and Terry said, ‘Could you put down that newspaper?’ And then, well, things just got out of hand.”

It was also the end of the family’s musical relationship with Katsouros, who in the following years would build a food empire of sorts in D.C. and Prince George’s County. Johnny Boy’s name still graces carryouts throughout the Washington area. (The only location he maintains a stake in is Johnny Boy’s Ribs in Upper Marlboro, Md.) But he says he hasn’t heard from Terry Huff in years. “Give him my number. I’d love to talk to him,” he says. “Last time I talked to him he said he’d finally made it and I was going to be rich.”

Determined to avoid the draft, Terry became a D.C. cop in 1969. His four years with the MPD were marked by bravery—and clashes with superiors. One of the scarier moments was when Huff and partner Bob Horan cornered a notorious heroin pusher in the lobby of an apartment building. The perp pulled his gun. “In that moment, God showed me his arm,” Terry says. “[The gunman] suddenly spun around and backed up into a fire extinguisher, which started spraying everywhere.” Then Terry shot him through the right side of his chest. The dealer was paralyzed.

Soon, Huff started hearing whispers of a contract on his life. Here and there he’d get tips—on his 3rd District patrols, at the station, at home, even down on the Maryland farm where he’d lived during his foster-home days. “He was one of the most notorious guys in D.C.,” he says. “And one of the reasons I never sang in nightclubs all of the years is because I know that there are guys out there who would hurt me if they knew I was there and they could get a bead on me.”

Later, Huff and Horan tracked down a suave bank robber whom local media had labeled the Gentleman Bandit. They cuffed him in the Dupont Plaza Hotel. But, according to a Washington Post piece on the arrest, they never got to close the case—the FBI swooped in and took the Gentleman Bandit into federal custody.

Huff was quickly promoted, but his tenure didn’t last long. As he tells it, the swaggering and jockeying within the robbery squad ultimately got to him. After a string of altercations—Huff is hazy on the details—his sergeant told him, he says, to “shut up.” Terry was not amused. “I didn’t really like the quasimilitary thing. After I got into that thing with my sergeant, right in the squad room, I said, ‘You have no business speaking to me in this manner in public. Let me just say to you: I’m bigger than this job.’”

“They were always speaking to you like you had to beg for the job,” Huff says. “‘You don’t like it? Then quit.’ Well, that’s exactly what I did.” By December 1973, he was off the force and determined to get back into music.

“I Destroyed Your Love” remains Terry Huff’s masterpiece. To old-timer local DJs—Captain Fly, Scooter Magruder, Chuck McCool and their various contemporaries—the song is synonymous with a high point in pre-go-go D.C. R&B.

The tune is three-chord soul, structured like a call-and-response Gladys Knight song and dressed with sporadic strings and a fluid guitar lead. It begins with the guitar and a soprano sax trading licks, after which the strings sweep in and the background singers—Special Delivery—start a volley of harmonizing. At the 26th second, an impossibly high-pitched voice enters. It’s a woman—it has to be; it’s too high to be a man. But it’s Terry. The vocals have a one-take quality, as if a man entered the studio and laid down a single, extended, unrepeatable wail of knowing anguish.

I destroyed (I destroyed your love, your love for me)

Made you a victim of my insecurity

And when you had to go I just couldn’t understand (I couldn’t understand)

I thought (Naw, naw) you found yourself a brand new man

The song rotated modestly across the country and was huge in D.C. According to Captain Fly, it turned Huff into “a hometown hero with a national piece.”

“Terry was one of those singers,” Captain Fly says. “He can hit notes like Patti LaBelle, and then go even higher. No competition. Terry had that kind of gift where all you need is one voice.” But by the time the record came out, in 1976, Huff’s group was already history.

“I Destroyed Your Love” was written in 1973, before the birth of Special Delivery but after the disintegration of Huff’s relationship with his wife, Wanda. They had dated since childhood and married young. But the attention Wanda drew from other men drove Huff crazy. “I was jealous ’cause there were always guys trying to talk to her,” he says. “And you know what jealousy does—that destroys marriages and loves and all that.”

Huff directed his sense of loss into more songwriting. Taking music classes at Catholic University and living in a guitar-crammed apartment off of 7th and Franklin Streets NE, he composed the cycle of sad songs that would eventually become The Lonely One. Along the way, he picked up a new girlfriend, Deborah Broomfield, who insisted he show his songs to her friends George Parker, Reginald Ross, and Chet Fortune, who were gigging under the name Act 1.

The group, Terry says, had already charted in England with a tune called “Tom the Peeper” and broke onto U.S. soul charts with a song called “Friends or Lovers.” Now Act 1 needed a first tenor. And its members were a perfect match for “I Destroyed Your Love.”

After the disintegration of the Marglows, Huff says, he determined to stay solo. That’s what he’d told his brother Andrew, and that’s what he told Broomfield. “I told her, ‘No groups,’” he says. “‘I’m going to be a Quincy Jones someday.’”

But the allure of the front spot in an established act was too much. Before long, Chuck McCool had hooked Act 1 up with producer Van McCoy, an icon who’d worked with Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin. With Huff firmly in place as chief songwriter—he also helped write vocal charts—the group changed its name to Special Delivery, signed to Mainstream Records, and went to New York to record.

The sessions were fruitful—Captain Fly calls the songs “classics that represented that essence of D.C.”—but hot with tension. In Parker, Huff had once again found someone as stubborn as he. They fought over the vocal arrangements; they fought over the backing orchestra. Parker wanted a Spartan production; Huff a full string section. Huff eventually got his way. But in the process Special Delivery had started to fall apart.

Predictably, memories differ on why the group split. Huff says it was about money, explaining that things went south after he tried to backpedal out of a contract that gave Special Delivery an equal stake in songs he’d written alone. “George Parker is the one who destroyed the group....He went into a jealous rage.” Parker, Huff claims, fired him.

Parker doesn’t recall any squabbling over money. “There was a series of things that caused us to split,” he says. “For example, we were the kind of group that would do a lot of choreography. One of our disagreements had to do with the fact that Terry didn’t like to move a lot.”

And bandmate Chet Fortune doesn’t even recall any fireworks. “I think it was a friendly disagreement,” he says. “I don’t think George Parker fired Terry. They had a disagreement because George was the producer and the leader of the band and Terry was a co-producer and the writer of our biggest hit. Rather than George firing Terry, I think Terry walked.”

But as things fell apart, there was still one key track to lay down: “The Lonely One.” Huff called on his brothers Jimmy and Andrew to provide a backing track in his group’s place. “We allowed him to complete the rest of what he wanted to do with that album because we knew at the end of it we’d be going our separate ways,” Parker says.

For all of the people involved, making the disc was as close as they’d get to the musical big time. Parker and Special Delivery went on to record two full records without Huff. Parker also started teaching school, becoming involved in the D.C.’s teachers’ union. Today, he serves as the organization’s president.

Andrew Huff’s cameo didn’t bring him back into the game. He went to work for the Smithsonian. He raised a family and got jobs as a chauffeur, a truck driver, a postal worker. He also developed a sophisticated relationship with drugs. “In the early days there was maybe a little marijuana,” he says, “but no drugs. Maybe some alcohol to keep your voice in order....The real stuff was later. But the rest of ’em didn’t mess around—Terry didn’t do no drugs.” Last week, Andrew was hospitalized with high blood pressure and a pancreas that has him throwing up half the time. He’s gearing up for a back operation, too, though he’s still quick with a smile.

The end of “The Lonely One” was the end of the line for Terry Huff, too. “When George Parker put me out of the group, I had to go back to work,” he says. He picked up some shifts at Johnny Boy’s and then made what he says was a good living selling insurance. But he kept bouncing around, physically as well as professionally. He lived with various family members until they asked him to move along. At one point he sold cemetery plots. In 1983, he spent time in Los Angeles trying to get a record deal and to coax royalties out of producers he says wrongfully appropriated his songs. Back in D.C., his insurance-sales gig hit the skids—the victim, he says, of a blizzard that shut down his car.

Huff moved in with his mother to help her recover from back surgery. But he says she got sick of his refusal to hold a job. So she put him out, too. The pattern continued for a decade, long enough to wear out Huff’s welcome even among the members of his sprawling clan. One niece threw out Huff’s bed after he bought a car instead of contributing to her household. By 2003, he was spending nights in D.C. shelters between nights with his increasingly frustrated siblings.

As for that 2006 Mothers’ Day concert? He says he doesn’t remember where he was.

Huff was for the most part alone—and he didn’t mind. The man behind “I Destroyed Your Love” had decided there was no one he could trust. “In this world, when you put love out there, you never get love back,” he says. “In fact, more often than not, you get colossal evil in return.”

I’m supposed to meet Huff at 10 a.m. at his sister Becky’s place. Around 9, he calls me on his new cell phone to say there’s been a change of plans: His “music guy” wants him in Chinatown by 11. There’s a New York–bound bus to catch. Something about a record contract. Terry Huff still wants to make it big.

They’re queuing for the bus when I arrive. Huff, sporting new sunglasses, greets me with a grin. “My brother! It’s good to see you,” he says.

Huff’s music guy, who is less happy to see me, is Dana Mozie, a hip-hop impresario who’s brushed shoulders with Diddy, Salt ’n’ Pepa, and Michael Jackson. More recently, he’s known as the GOP’s “hip-hop ambassador.” (He did urban outreach for the Bush White House). Mozie has been trying to get Terry a comeback for a couple years now.

“I want to do an upgrade of his style into today’s style, today’s R&B,” Mozie says. “I just wanted to take his voice and put it in the mix so people could fall in love with it again. Give him his last opportunity to be in on some other projects—kind of get his props.”

The bus lurches down H Street NW and eventually north, to the city where Huff recorded with Van McCoy, where Johnny Boy Katsouros dressed him in a bright green tux and told him to go out and charm the world, where he used to turn up in a ’61 Seville. As he boarded, Huff looked like a star: dark glasses, wide smile—an elder statesman of R&B unconcerned with his own demise.

It almost doesn’t matter that there wasn’t a record deal, after all. Mozie just showed Huff around—the Puerto Rican street parade, a quick stop in Chinatown, a spin around Times Square.

Our Readers Say

Wow, what a great story. I met Terry Huff working the cash register in JohnnyBoys on Southern Ave. You can't imagine how big a hit Special Delivery was after "I Destroyed Your Love" came out. Every kid in town was singing it. This was the peak of sweet R & B singing groups sucj as the Temptations, Stylistics, Spinners, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes Delfonics, Dramatics, Dells, The Manhattans and the Montclairs. It was a great time to be young in DC.

I remember Terry Huff when I was just a little girl living in the same building. We live in 601 Edgewood Terrace on the 7th floor. We were little girls that loved him and everytime we would see him we would have him to sing to us all the time. So, I heard that songbird 1st hand and loved every minute of it. As a matter of fact, I still listen to him every single day because I have that song in my CD player right now as we speak. I love him and willl never forget the joy he gave me as a little one on the plaza of Edgewood Terrace.

WOW of a story indeed ! I just hope Terry realizes how many lives his music has touched. In 1976 I came home from the Air Force on sick leave for 30 days. In need of music I went to the SOUL SHACK on G st. and found "I Destroyed Your Love" on a 45 record. After playing it I knew I was home and when I left I could take a small piece of home with me. Thank you Terry Huff and long live D.C.

WOW!!! This is amazing. I'm so glad I have have the opportunity to read this article because I would have never known that The song that I have been singing for the last couple of years belonged to a DC Native. There is a lot of talent in this area that goes unknown. Good Job Mr. Huff and I will continue to Rock " I destroyed your love"

You could not imagine what it was like growing up in this environment. These are my uncles, I love them all dearly. By the time I was born their careers in music were all but over, yet the love of music ran deep. If I could tell of all the years I spent listening to my uncle Terry play his guitar, while singing along in my grandmother's living room. Or how my uncle Andrew used to sing while he was cooking, it was sad to never actually hear them sing together, even though they could be in the same house. This riff between the family has keep us virtually divided for years, but all for what? Its not over money, its really none to speak of, as far as I know. Could it be that that the only love that was truly destroyed was the love between brothers? Who knows? I know that it has be hard growing up with uncles who don't speak to each other. Is it too late for family counseling? This article has shed light on a lot of problems plaguing our large, yet divided family. Our story should be used a tool for upcoming groups of young people trying to make it big in the music business.

It is so sad to hear what has happened to Terry. I went to school with him at Eastern High School and the former Wanda Wallace is my cousin, so his condition touches me deepl. I wish there was something I could do to help him out.

Terry, Andrew, Dave, and my uncle Mickey Freeman they reherese in my grandmother's basement. I would sit on the basement steps and watch them play. I had a love for music. Terry always had a smile on his face with those deep demples and I knew he had a song in his heart. My sister had a crush on him. The Huff brother were just like family to us. I was sorry to hear about Terry illness I will be preying for him. Give us a call our family would be glad to here from you.

Growing up in DC, all of my friends knew to call me when "I Destroyed Your Love" would play on the radio. I loved that song and it's still one of my all time favorites. I will pray for Terry's healing and I hope he realizes what an impact his song had on DC and to this day, his fans are still pulling for him. God Bless You, Terry.

Terry Huff is not a lost soul. It is only God Almighty who can determine whether an man's soul is lost or whether it is not! It is not a man's call to make and place it on the front pages of the Washington City paper "LOST SOUL".

My Brothas and Sistahs do you all remember the story of the Good Samaritan?
Luke 10:33- But a certain samaritan as he journeyed, came where he was: and
when he saw him, he had COMPASSION on him. All who have read this story, let this be the time that the Washington DC Community reach out to Terry and show
him compassion and mercy, not just in words, but in deeds and in truth.

I am so sad to read this about Terri. Terri recorded me in 1982 in Washington DC. but we never released the song. Terri was so very kind to me and a gentleman. I am going to record again and thought I would look him up and I found this article. I am going to contact Ted tomorrow so I can try to reach Terri. Pray for him. Pray changes things.

I am so sad to read this about Terri. Terri recorded me in 1982 in Washington DC. but we never released the song. Terri was so very kind to me and a gentleman. I am going to record again and thought I would look him up and I found this article. I am going to contact Ted tomorrow so I can try to reach Terri. Pray for him. Prayer changes things.

I remember " I destroyed your love" Even when I hear it now it is like I am right in with that time. DC was my heart. Eventhough my parents moved us to Columbia, Maryland. My heart remained faithful too this music.

I often wondered what ever happened to Terry Huff and Special Delivery. I was 8 years old and the youngest of 10 siblings when this album came out and I have been in love with it ever since. One of the benefits of growing up with teenage and twenty something year old siblings, I received an excellent education on real and good music. As a young girl I would sing the songs and not fully comprehend the meaning, as I got older, I was so amazed at how timeless, relateable and profoumd the music and lyrics of all the songs on this album really were. It is a mainstay in my music collection, however, it is still a cd i have to reapeatedly replace due to my older siblings love of the cd and their sticky fingers lol! My most favorite and therapeutic lyrics: 1. The good book teaches that it's sinful to lust, but that's what drove to betraying your trust, and 2. The hardest part is when I'm all alone and no one cares enough to ring my phooooone. Thanks Terry for the great music/lyrics that made us all feel akin to you. May God Bless and Keep you Brother!

Terry Huff, you are and always will be a gift of light to all who listen to your music & voice. Your journey has been a beautiful yet a trying one. We all have to take that journey which has been assigned to us, however difficult it may be, the good news is, we don't have to take it alone. Please know that love is possible, love can be real, beautiful and true and I pray you have found love now and forever. As a radio personality in Deroit, we have always truly loved your gift of music and will always continue to do so. Don't ever forget how much your fans love you. You are not a lost soul, never have been, never will be!!! What you are is a joy! that is etched in our hearts, minds and souls always. I wish for you & your love ones peace, love, kindness, forgiveness & healing. Please Heal quickly & peacefully my beautiful, talented Brother.

Mr. Huff, I hope that when you read this that life will be treating you real well. I deeply commend you for your spirit of
not giving up on your dreams especially with how life has thrown it's wrenches at you. You are indeed a very well gifted
singer with God given talents. "The Lonely One" will always remain one of my favorite love ballads of all time despite how
terribly underrated it was. I lived in Michigan during much of the 70's and now have resided in Texas the past thirty years
and am almost appalled at no one seeming to have heard it and as for that matter " I Destroyed Your Love "also. You will always be in my prayers and remember, "GOD is ABLE". I just know that he will bless the desires and wants of your heart.
Keep on keeping on !! GOD BLESS!

Terry the man
Huff I was 14 years old when I heard I destroyed your love it moved me then and it really moves me now along with the lonely one I didn't know whether you was still alive or not but i'm happy to know that you are I will continue to pray for your health and fortune I need to hear more music from you
I love you man get well we need you

Hello Terry, you will always be one of the best in my book. I often wonder what ever happen to you but be assured that God has his loving arms around you. I am fifty nine years of age always wanted to meet you are even talk to you. If so happen that you get this e-mail i can be reached at 281-854-7262. Take care may God bless you.

When I first heard Terry Huff, I feel in love with his style and voice. And the song, the lonely one, just hit right at home with me..Because I was going through a set back, from a broke-up affair. The whole LP, was a nice. Sorry to hear, he is sick. My prayers go out to him.

I USED TO CALL WHUR AND REQUEST I DESTROYED YOUR LOVE PT 14 AND 2 EVERY SUNDAY. MANESY TOLD ME I CAUSED HIM TO PUT A HOLE IN THE ALBUM. YES ALBUM. I AM SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT HIS HEALTH. PLEASE KNOW THAT THIS SONG IS STILL A FAV OF MANY PEOPLE.MAY GOD BLESS YOU

Thanks Patrick for sharing those personal moments that we all have in our families. Sure do miss Terry Huff and his great voice, and sorry to hear about his illness. Terry if you read this know that there is a lot of love for you. Don't ever think you have been forgotten. That'll never happen. Just like I search for some information about you, others are doing the same thing. Much love to you Terry. Dreams come alive, so you keep on thinking about what it is you want to do. That is where it all begins. I just wish you would tour and share that magical voice with us.

HI TERRY,I JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT I'M A VERY BIG FAN OF YOURS. YOU HAVE A VERY BEAUTIFUL,UNIQUE,MOURNFUL VOICE THAT GOES THROUGH THE HEART AND TOUCHES THE SOUL. I FELL IN LOVE WITH IT THE VERY FIRST TIME I HEARD THE SONG "I DESTORYED YOUR LOVE"(MY FAVORITED) AT THE AGE OF 7. EVEN AS A CHILD,I'VE ALWAYS DREAMED OF THE DAY THAT I COULD MEET THAT PERSON BEHIND THAT "SUPERIOR VOICE". YES TERRY,YOU ARE A "SUPERIOR ARTIST" INDEED!!

Hey,we use to talk as friends.I was at 7D. When you left to do your dream, I never really understood why you left the "Blue" for a shift at Johnny Boys.The music was great. Herb did it came back and left to do his dream too.I did finally get it.The year was 1972-73.I left in 1979.We were just a bit more than babies with blue steel S&M'S not really sure of why we chose that career path. You were a really nice person and I loved our conversations.I pray for you and wish you wellness.I am still looking for my old LP.It is in one of about fifteen boxes of records in my basement.

TERRY is not a lost soul at all !! ANDY & THE MARGLOWS song (s) WERE STOLEN and it is no doubt about it. They deserve their money for their work. I know TERRY from 15 th & Indepence Avenue S.E. years ago and I pray that GOD does bless him with some riches & better health before he calls him home !! TERRY with his brothers, the other group and several groups from Washington, D.C. did NOT get their deserved recognition...THE SUMMITTS, THE PRESIDENTS, THE AMBASSADORS, THE D.C. TONES, THE FUZZ, THE MANNIQUINS, THE CHOICE FOUR, FOUR MILE HIGH, THE CHANCELLORS, BBS UNLIMITED, THE JEWELS, JOE QUARTERMAN & FREE SOUL, THE EPSILONS featuring JAMES DUVAL, FATHER'S CHILDREN, INSTANT GROOVE, THE KATASIONS and SKIP MAHONEY & THE CASUALS. These D.C. groups were some of the best !! Forgive me if I left out any other entertainers.

Wow, to read this article and learn all this... I'm from New Orleans and since I was a kid I have loved " I Destroyed Your Love", radio stations played it so much growing up and even play it often today! I'm glad to have read this story about Bro. Huff and my prayers go out tohiand for a speedy, healthy recovery.

Terry I just came by to firstly wish you the very best and Pray The Lord is keeping you ..As well to tell you of one of my happiest days ..I am on a site connected with facebook called "Soul Shadows" It's been a pleasure sharing our passion of the finest Soul ever recorded.. Today 3 not one was introduced to "Poochie" through me. They had not heard it I emailed the song to them and one replied "This is sweet!!! I have been a big fan for years have the "Lonely one" album and treasure it ..I am not connected to the music business in any way nor know the ins and outs ...just know what I love and want to tell you Your music can not be duplicated ever!!! Am anxiously waiting on the responses of the other two Gentlemen as to their opinions.One of the happiest days thanks to you love Nina ..May you be blessed today and always ..youre so loved ..

Mr. Huff the first time I heard you sing, I was hooked for life.You should be talked about in the comyany of the greatest falsetto voices.The likes of Eddie Kendricks,Curtis Mayfield and others.I wish more had been done to promote your music, we were so cheated.i remember you in my prayers and I sencerely pray for a full and complete reovery.I often say ,we have not seen or heard the best that there is. You Sir are truly a gifted voice from God. I hold you in high esteem.If anyone wonders how angels sounds thay should Listen to you sing.God blessed you with a beautiful vice. thank you for sharing it with us.

I am from NJ, but in 1976 i was station in Ft Hood Tx. I purchased the cassette tape Terry Huff and Special Delivery, The Lonely One. I listened to that cassette often since then. Even after cassette players were old, i made sure i had a cassette player to play this cassette. These song were always a part of my life because the words are so true in relationships. i was so glad to be able to purchase this album from iTunes, In fact i am listening to it now. I enjoy the entire album and i agree Terry your voice is in the line of the best. I cannot understand why rejection came, but we lost out. I wish i could see a concert. i wouldn't know what to do with myself!

I was 16 my parents allowed me to have a party. I was so excited,then my other eights track ta tapes wouldn't play. The only one that would play is my Terry Huff and Special Deliver I played it over and over the whole night . My party was a sucess I had impressed the senior class even though I was just starting senior high. I always wanted to Thank You and Special Delivery. And I'm looking for it so that I can buy it again, you are an inspiration to me love you then still love you now ! !

Heavenly Father, I come before you with a
solemn heart and in need of your intercession.
I believe in your capacity for miracles, and ask for this on
behalf of my all time favorite R&B Sensation, Mr. I Destroyed Your Love himself, Terry Huff. Heavenly Father, I know you have the power to grant me a miracle and I'm asking for your mercy and grace. Through you all things are possible! Thank you heavenly father, for filling me today and ever day thereafter with hope and faith, and helping us to stay strong for him in the most trying of circumstances.

The first time I heard I destroyed your love, I had just moved to Milwaukee Wisconsin after a stint in the Navy. Early 70ish. My buddy Ray and his Fiance, who had a super fine twin sister along, took me to the Lantern Club, down on 3rd street in the heart of the city. It was the hey-day of the DJ, and next to my boy Lil Mike, Soulful WScruggs was the may. I mean you could go to the Lantern club and Bop till ya dropped. That nite, my first party nite in Milwaukee, was the first time I heard the song: I Destroyed Your Love.
I remember that Soulful Scruggs NEVER played the song without playing parts 1 & 2 back to back, and no lie, he dropped those track 4 or five times that night. The next day I went down on 3rd & wells to Radio Doctor Record Store & bought the album. for many year that jam, along with Lonely one, were numbers one and two on my personal hit parade.
I owned the album, I think, 4 times altogether. Once O found it for 2 bucks in an old jam stack at Woolworths down across from the food stamp office. I'd either wear the grooves out from puttingt the arm back on the record to hear the same songs over & over, or some scallywag hag would slip outta my crip with the disc in her fist.
Great story...
About a great group...
Thanks for taking me back in time to when back tracks rode on black wax, and we'd groove to Terry Huff tracks.

I first heard "I destroy your love by Terry Huff" in a little town call Yazoo City Ms. in 1976 and oh man did I love that song and the way the people down there slow dance off of it. Man I took that back to the west side of Chicago and my sessions on Soul Train, oh how everyone loved it and the slow dance that I brought back from Yazoo. I m very sadden to hear of Mr. Huff's conditions and I sincerly pray that he would be clear of all illiness and return back to what he loves. Stay strong my brother and keep the faith.

Thanks everyone for all your kind words in our families time of need. Unfortunately, we lost our beloved Song Bird early this morning.Words can not express how we all are feeling but we asking that you continue to keep us in your prays!

You all have my deepest sympathy. I work on the unit where Terry spent his final days. I would look in on him on the nights i worked. We also had discussions about how he felt about his diagnosis. Simply, he would say"Im ready, this world is a wicked place. I found Terry to be kind of deep. We also shared a good laugh. I was honored to have been able to spend just a few moments with someone whom i had only heard of through family and the joyous tunes of "I destroyed your love"and"The lonley one.Everyone of you are in my prayers. Love Pam

Sadly on the morning of Dec.14, 2012, my Father lost his battle with cancer and departed this world peacefully I must say! I would like to thank all the Doctor's and supporting staff of GWU hospital who were in awe of him and his music, for providing him with the best of care in his last days, not to forget CN&R facility in Maryland. You guys are all Awesome! To piggyback on my cousins comments above, i also thank you all for your kind comments and support. My Daddy will be forever loved and truly missed!

Terry and I were very good child and adult friends. We attended Eastern High School (Ramblers)and attended Washington Tech., back in the day, wer sang so many songs together and were co-workers on the DC Metropolitan Police Department.

I have been trying very hard to locate Terry and now he is home. GOD BLESS the entire family at this time.

Hello all, I am the nephew of the late Terry Huff, many may know me from my early years at Kalorarma skating rink, but many others know my from my music; I am currently on tour in Japan when I found out that my Uncle was hospitalized and was told that he has only a short time left on this world.

For all of his fans I would like to encourage you too keep his music alive and to keep being a fan of the Huff family, there are many talented members in this family and I'm sure even in your families; It is important to nurture and encourage the gifts that you and or your children have, don't sweep it under a mat or dismiss it as just a "Hobby".

I would like to encourage my family to keep Uncle Terry's legacy alive and to keep pushing forth with your talents and gifts. Never, every let your dream die, first before others can believe in you, you must believe in yourself. All my love to my family and to Tiff. Huff, also a shout out to Aunt Becky.. you are a wonderful person. Love you always
C. Huff

I attended Eastern High School 1963 - 1966 with Terry and I lived in the neighborhood. I will never forget the Eastern High School Talent Show with Terry, Mickey, Michael H. and others. He always had a smile bright enough for a toothpaste commercial. A nice friendly guy. Reading the story brought back many memories of days gone bye. As am Eastern Rambler "Peace to you, Terry!!"
To the family remember the good times...

Good Morning! There will be a benefit concert in my Uncle's Honor on January 4th from 6:00pm-1:00am at Hampton Conference Center 207 W. Hampton Pl., Capitol Heights, MD. The cost to attend this event is $20 and will be collected at the door. To get more information please email me to get the flyer.....fantasyiland03@hotmail.com.

P.S. There will be no funeral services as my uncle has been cremated. Therefore this concert is a way for everyone who loved him and his music to honor and cherish his memories.

I just heard the news and I am sad the Mr. Huff didn't get an opportunity to share his wonderful voice with the world on more albums. I live in Chicago and when "I Destroyed Your Love" first came out it was played often in the clubs and people sang along. I must have bought the album three times because actually wore sections out playing it so much. Mr. Huff had the voice of an angel and after learning of his passing I had to play "I Destroyed You Love" in memory of the good times. May God bless the family and may Mr. Huff's soul rest in peace. In Jesus' name. Amen.

I had heard that Terry may have passed and I was hoping and praying it was not the case. Lived in the apartment building next to Terry's and he and I were always crazy with the music. I will always remember my friend as someone who had the magic not only with his vocals but with his ability to lift ones spirit with his words and that infectious smile. My prayers go forward, I truly adored and loved Terry Huff. John

Im from baltimore md and was and still a very big fan of terry huff & special delivery. We. Here in baltimore maryland claimed him as our own too. We listened to his music dailey from 1975 up until now april 2013. We kind of put him up on a local musical pedistal throne with our local singers - marvin brown of the softones , tony yarborough of first class & jimmy briscoe of the beavers along with also billy griffin of the miracles. It hurts all of us up here as well and he will truly be missed as well as loved. (Tony cole).

R.I.P. my dear friend Mr. Huff. We recorded some amazing songs before your death. Your fans are going to be amazed that you still 'had it" despite all the distractions going on in your life. Stay tuned DC. Keep watch soul music fans! Get ready to feel the love America! You have not heard the last of Terry Huff. A voice like his can never be silenced! LOVE SONGS ARE BACK AGAIN!